asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will have notification sent to the residents of Collinstown Lane, Cloghran, County Dublin, as to when it is proposed to rehouse them.
21.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Dublin Housing.
20.
asked the Minister for Transport and Power the reason for the delay in the sanctioning of the necessary moneys for the rehousing of the people living in Collinstown Lane, Cloghran, County Dublin.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose taking Questions Nos. 20 and 21 together.
Dublin County Council in co-operation with my Department propose to provide replacement houses for the occupants of the Collinstown Lane cottages on a site at Santry Avenue. Consultations with the occupants in the matter by a representative of Aer Rianta will take place at a very early date. At present I am unable to say when the replacement houses will be built but there will be no avoidable delay in their provision. The provision of the houses has not been delayed because of financial considerations.
Is the Minister aware that four years ago, as a matter of urgency, Dublin County Council, his Department and the Department of Local Government visited these people, telling them that within three weeks they would be removed from these houses and placed elsewhere? During that period the people in Collinstown Lane have been for breakfast, dinner and tea suffering the fumes of the jets which are blowing in their windows. The people have requested that something be done as a matter of urgency about this but the Department of Transport and Power have failed, as far as I am concerned, to co-operate with the people because they have never visited them regarding what type of houses they want or what kind of conditions they want in regard to these houses.
We cannot have a speech on this matter.
I should like to ask the Minister if he would get somebody from his Department to call to these people to notify them that they intend to acquire this area by letter and not by verbal contact? These people should be treated in the same way as the other people from whom land was acquired —the Gresham Hotel and other people. These people live in council cottages and they deserve the same treatment.
To put the Deputy into perspective in the matter, Dublin County Council was given notice of my predecessor's intention in regard to these houses in May 1963. From May, 1963 until 15th April, 1970 the matter lay entirely between the Dublin County Council and the Department of Local Government, more with the Dublin County Council than with the Department of Local Government. The lay-out plans finally prepared by the Dublin County Council arrived in my Department on 15th April of this year, and immediately action was taken by representatives of my Department and Aer Rianta who held meetings with the Department of Local Government and the Dublin County Council between 15th April and 4th May and since then have been in touch with the people concerned. The matter is now reaching finality.
Question No. 22.
Is the Minister aware that plans have been submitted to his Department without the people in Collinstown Lane being contacted and that these people have to accept whatever type of houses the council and the Department of Transport and Power give them, that even though they are purchase tenants in the council type houses, they will get a house in a block of six when they want a house in a block of two? Surely they deserve consideration and, at least, should be contacted about this?
Consultation has been going on between engineers of Aer Rianta and officials of my Department since the 4th May, 1970 when we received the appropriate lay-out plans from the Dublin County Council. If the Dublin County Council chose to wait from 1963 to 1970 to take action and we got into action within a month of receiving the lay-out plans, it is pretty obvious where the blame lies for the delay in the matter.
Surely the Minister for Local Government must carry a certain amount of responsibility?